


Rat's Tail

by greerwatson



Category: Forever Knight
Genre: Episode: s05e13 Fever, Gen, post-episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2018-05-25 20:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6208567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/pseuds/greerwatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Screed's death hits Vachon hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rat's Tail

Tracy seldom spoke of Screed before his death.  Vachon knew how she felt, of course.  It was obvious whenever he mentioned his friend, in her guarded tones and her scent.  _After_ Screed’s death, he didn’t mention him at all.

***

“If anything happens to _me_ ,” Urs said once, abruptly, “I want you to leave me in the sun.  If I can’t have a Christian burial, I’d rather just ... go.”

“I’ll sweep you out with the dust,” he said, lightly.  It wasn’t a joking matter (and he wasn’t surprised to see her wince), but it did shut her up.  It was not something he wanted to think about.

***

“People nowadays like to think they’re so broad-minded,” he burst out once to Knight, who was startled at his vehemence, which was quite disproportionate to the conversation they’d been having.  He didn’t explain:  he knew perfectly well that Knight didn’t care for carouches any more than other vampires did; but the man at least shared his own opinion on the value of humans.

***

He debated moving out of the church, taking over the cellar in Screed’s honour.  In the end, though, a coal chute was no door; access to the sewers no asset; and he couldn’t face clearing out Screed’s pitiful collection of rats.  What became of them, he didn’t know, pegged to the line as they were.  Starved, he supposed, if they couldn’t bite themselves free.

It was months before Urs let it slip that she’d gone by the day after he’d told her Screed had died, and carefully unclipped each tail and let them loose.  Vachon flushed, as far as a vampire could, with the shame of leaving the job to her.

In truth, there were parts of his dead friend’s life he preferred to ignore. But he still missed him.

**Author's Note:**

> "Rat's Tail" was written for Brightknightie in the Dead Dog Party after FK Fic Fest 2012 to her prompt, _“Neither Captain Reese nor Screed won a star turn in this year’s game, though all the other characters recurring at their levels did. Might someone be inspired to write something focusing on Reese or Screed?”._
> 
> The story was posted to FK Comment Fic on 30 September 2012, and immediately posted to FKFIC-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU.


End file.
